I have to say, this whole World Youth Day business is bringing out a lot of cynicism and eye rolling from me. To be honest, I don't really know enough about it to make a valued judgement on it all, but the two impressions I am getting are one, a whole bunch of extra people in an already annoying crowded city, and two, people talking about the Pope as though he were Jesus, and swarming around a plank of wood to kiss it.Now, I ought to be careful, and not be too critical of Catholicism, but at the same time I think it is fair enough to be frustrated and (to be honest), quite sickened by the rhetoric that's going around. I watched the news last night, and it was overflowing with hype and hysteria about the Pope being in town. Police were interviewed, and would refer to him as His Holiness. A massive image of his face is being projected on to the Harbour Bridge. The people coming to see him are described as 'pilgrims'.
To me this just feels wrong. There were high priests before Jesus' time, because we needed that mediator to come before God. But the whole point of Jesus coming to earth was to become that mediator, and to take away any further need of a human to mediate between us and God. And yet here people are practically worshipping a man, and treating him as the mediator.
They may be carrying a cross around, but really, I don't see a lot of Jesus in the picture at all.
8 comments:
Totally agree Ben. So much of what I want to see ascribed to Jesus is ascribed to the pope.
I saw two young Australian Catholics on TV this morning, and when Larry Emdur asked what it was that united all these pilgrims they answered 'Oh His holiness is amazing at bringing all kinds of different people together to celebrate'.
I found it rather saddening.
Thanks Sam. Yeah that is really quite repugnant if you ask me. The great men in the Bible were great because they always deflected the glory straight on to J, whenver people started to treat them as more than men.
But yeah, I guess the better response is for me not to be angry and ridicule this, but to be saddened as you are, and to pray about it.
Hmmmmm beejay, we have always had good discussions about this stuff. I for one, agree with your sentiment and my cynicism of the catholic church runs deeper than you can imagine. I will say that I guess if people are going to come together in the name of God, then better this way than not at all, however, this bloke, whats his name, Ben (edict) is just a guy who is he top of the proverbial tree when the other bloke falls off and takes over his role as the conduit to God? Ahem...excuse me...
I work in town and there are a lot of frustrated and angry people around because of the resultant traffic issues etc but the first response is "Well, it is in the name of Jesus, eh?" (said, dripping with sarcasm) and as it turns out the Jesus factor, as you say, is being somewhat overlooked. I wonder what portion of this event's takings will feed the homeless in Sydney or anywhere else for that matter. There's alot of cash going around....but there's a distinct lack of christianity...
But I digress.
Mate, this might be a rare time where we come close to agreeing..
i guess my point is, well, is it better to come together in this way 'in the name of God' than not at all? I'm not convinced. To me it looks like they are coming together in the name of Benedict. Sometimes being close to the truth is much worse than being a million miles off.
agreed.
Now read the review of the film above and lets get back to disagreeing shall we?
probably for the best
I was told by a woman yesterday, that the closer to the wooden cross and the Pope she could get, the closer to God she would be.
While I know that was just one woman's opinion, I think it does represent alot of what we see.
I agree. That seems to me to be the key reason why it is unwise to have 'graven images' or whatever the term is-- an object might start out as a reminder of God, but can quickly become something else; something that has special power in and of itself. A cross signifies Jesus, but it is still just a mere plank of wood.
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